My Ongoing Home Remodel Project (update 10-3-09) We'll, i'm going to share what i've been doing, i've always wanted my own sticky project thread, hopefully a mod will be kind enough to make this one. here are the before pictures, http://www.tweak3d.net/forums/off-topic/my-new-house-pics-46160/ and these are before i owned it. http://www.tweak3d.net/forums/off-topic/i-just-bought-43637/ This is the new driveway, partially completed, and the future garage to the left. so far i've brought in 60 yards of gravel and i'm probably going to need another 30. the neighbor scraped all the topsoil and leveled out everything for me, for free. there was a big ass tree and a bunch of little ones there, that i took down and ground out the stump. the trees in the swamp were topped by the electric co and i'm going to cut the rest down and fill that thing in. my new mailbox! just planted some seed here. this area was filled with rocks, 2x2 concrete paver's, cinder blocks. a busted ass sidewalk and some overgrown dying trees. tore it all out Saturday, the neighbor let me use the skid loader, graded it and threw down some seed. The garage and driveway, garage is going to extend to where the football is, and out about to the piece of drain tile. total size when finished will be 50'x34' All the crap i've found , and dug up in my yard, going to be buried front view of the future garage. of the house, still have to tear up the front yard and regrade going to remove that "hump" and make it a continual slop down from the neighbors yard. the old driveway, dug out all the gravel and used as a base for the new. the big ass stump we tore out with a stump grinder and skid loader. the wood pile so far back of the house, cleared a lot out of here. what used to be a 30" stump didnt have time to grind that one. more fucked up yard, and a 280$ pile of dirt. i poured a a/c pad, new gas service and a temp gas line for my dryer. this is going to be the a/c for my garage, i'm buying a new Trane high efficiency unit for the house when i get my bonus. its hard to tell by this pic, but that area of the yard is so fucked up from when they drilled the well that i cant even cut it. back corner of the garage is about 30" below grade, i was discussing with wiskas a way to build this up with some block. lower back yard, cleared a bunch of dead trees out of here, on top of that ridge is another half acre, that i and the neighbors plan on planting a huge garden on next spring. theres 3-4 apple trees up there now. a very attractive sat dish new fridge, 200 bones dining area, probably going to end up tearing this tile up, i installed it wrong. need a new front door. unfinished living room. new electric, data and sat for all rooms, this is my office, i refinished the floors, textured the walls, new electrical and data, and redid the closet. i started on the trim behind my desk but still ahve to finish, and get a new solid door. old floor vs new did a knockdown texture in the office, painted this room (and all rooms) and a new light. new high efficiency shitter. new shower, did all the tile, ran new copper pipes. kept the old tub tho. this is my room, smallest, didnt do much except paint it and a new light. beer fridge in the basement, old oil tank, sold the old oil furnace for 125$. i gotta get rid of this thing, somehow. the basement. shit everywhere. i'm tearing out the whole duct system, and replacing it (thinner trunks because i hit my head on them) this winter when i put the new ac and furnace in. build a pedestal for the washer and dryer. I've only moved the dryer so far. new chainsaw on the left, 18" echo. started with a homelite against 950's advice, whell that sucked so i took it back, got this one because i only had store credit at home depot. this one is going back soon for a 20" sthil or husquverna another new project, repiping the entire house, new rinnai tankless water heater, iron filter and a used water softener from my dad's girlfriend. i'm also going to have to gaspipe the house. washer/.dryer pedestal, all temped in because i didn't have a dryer. going to put a double utility sink to the left, and the furnace is going on the right. can't forget about the wired gigabit network, this will all go on a rack someday with a server, ran cat6 through out the whole house, all inwall with keystones and faceplates.
Dude! When I finally get a house, I'll have to call you to spruce it up. Everything looks nice and neat.
everything looks awesome so far. ...about your indoor furnace...turn it into an indoor smoker and make some good eats
Damn, that's alot of work. Great job. Is your garage going to be a "true garage" or a workshop? If workshop, I'd block the walls up to atleast 5-6 feet for metal work/welding. Ditto on the smoker.
the garage is going to be a workshop/garage for now, i plan on, 10-15 years out building a workshop in the back yard, but one thing at a time, right.
Looks good Miller! What did you decide to do about the garage foundation? I've seen too many block foundations in my area that let too much moisture through. That mostly has to do with the weather in my area and the height of our water table, though. I like concrete
thanks, thats one thing i'm really trying to do, i don't want any half assed stuff in my house, thats why i'm ripping the tile i just did up and doing it right. the ceiling in my office is driving me nuts because you can see the tape seams, i'm probably going to end up re-doing that.
its going to be a 5.5" floating slab, with a perimeter footing of 12x12", with rebar, then rebar sticking up through the cores of the block and the cores filled with cement, and a moisture sealer on the outside of the block. the neighbors also going to change the grade around the garage so that water flows away from it.
Heh, as soon as I saw that picture I was going to ask you about the saw So, what are you looking at getting now? But anyways, the place is looking great man, keep it up.
LIMESTONE TRAFFIC BOND Limestone traffic bond offers advantages to those who are stabilizing an area for traffic or building. It's uses are similar to road gravel, but is oftentimes used where the conditions are initially wetter or softer than normal. 5/8" size is used for the final grading or top surface, whereas the 3/4" size is oftentimes used for the base aggregate course. Key Benefits -Packs extremely hard- excellent choice for drives, parking lots, traffic areas. more resistant to "washing out" than other types of material. -Provides an exceptionally hard base to pave over. -Actually has somewhat of a "drying" effect when used over wetter ground. in the pictures it is what the driveway and garage are filled with. haha, well don't think i didn't consider your advice. initially i looked at the husqvarna and Stihl's, but at the time i really couldn't afford it so i cheaped out and bought the homelite 18". it worked great at first, even came with a nice little case, for 160$. well after a few tree's it wouldn't stay running when it was warmed up. if you let it idle, it would die, and you couldn't start it. and the chain would fall off continuously. so, after looking for a few days for the receipt, i couldn't find it, so i took it back to the home depot. they agreed to take it back, and said they get them back all the time. but they would only give me store credit. so i bought the most expensive echo they had. 18", it was much nicer than the homelite, but when i was cutting some big stumps and trees, it struggled to make it through a 16" trunk. so now i'm considering a stihl or husqvarna, 20" with some more hp. i figure if i even end up spending another 100$ ill be much happier. menards sells both brands, and i've been meaning to get over there to take a look.
Take a look on ur local craigslist, people here are always selling good used Stihl chainsaws for cheap, ive got a 18" MS250 and I love it. Homelite made the best chainsaws back in the 60s through the 80s but the newer ones are cheap plastic junk and have alot of carburetor problems.
That work never ends when you're a DIY'er, does it? When I framed in my office I sunk maybe.....maybe 400 bux into all materials. Anyone else doing the work and it'd have been 4 grand. Thanks to craigslist, i scored a decent set of cherry cabinets. I'll be adding on to the shop and removing the center wall in favor of one big area and use posts and girders to take the 2nd floor load, the it's on to building a gfreenhouse.
Nice work man. Ive been doing the same around my house. It is basically inner city so not as much yard work though. The house I paid $373k for 6 months ago I am pretty sure would go for around $450k to $475 now. Can't wait to see your garage.
Damn! And I thought I was a diyer! I've got nothing on you! Keep it coming with the pics, it will help me to get motivated to start the projects I've been talking about for a while. Posted via Mobile Device
Without totally derailing this thread, what have you done to your house jake? 100k increase in value in this market is pretty unheard of.
The Calgary market has been climbing for about 4 months, plus I caught the sellers with their pants down, they bought another place before they totally sold this one. They had conditionally sold it for $415k, were originally asking $430k. Ive redone the bathrooms completely, which were definately the low points of the house. Redid the basement as well. New walls, floor, lighting. Painted the entire house. Replaced anything that looked more than a few years old (all light switches, plug ins, replaced a couple windows.) Had the sellers put in a new water heater. And I am putting in a high efficiency furnace in a month. Im friends with my realtor and she is the one that pointed out the prices houses like mine were going for over the last couple weeks.
Today i set off to start installing a furnace. its October in Wisconsin and is starting to get a bit cold at night. I'm using my bonus at work to buy equipment, that way i don't have to pay taxes on it. American standard 60k btu variable speed 2 stage furnace with 2.5 ton cased coil, r410 and a matching 12 seer AS condenser outside. got the furnace and condenser at wholesaler cost as it was scratch and dent. measured up and ordered the ductwork monday, got it sent out with another job's metal. this is the old ductwork, supply on the left return on the right. all the branches are 4", which is too small. they used to do that with oil burners. also it's 8" rectangular ductwork, which i hit my head on all the time. i cant have that. difference in height from old to new ductwork. my helpers, 2 puppies and a gf i'm zoning the house into 4 zones, 1 for the roommates room, 1 for the office, 1 for my room, bathroom and kitchen, and 1 for the living room. using a honeywell conventional zone system which also works with my variable speed motor to slow it down when only a few zones a calling. the purpose of this is to have better comfort control and save money (i can drop the res of the house down to 50-55 at nice and leave the rooms at 65. and likewise in the summer. installing the rectangular dampers in the 10x6 well i sliced my finger pretty good and lost my moral for a few house. back at it, decided to give the tin a break and knock out the gas pipe. borrowed my dad's pipe threader. thats my roomie in the pic. gas pipe all done, had it temped in from the meter with some wardflex. collateral damage got the old supply all demo'd, doing to finish it tomorrow. i also have to core 3 2" holes for the intake, exhaust and lineset/electrical. wire in a temp stat, and temp up a drain somehow and ill have heat. unfortunately i have no floor drains in my basement, so i have to cut in a crock and a few drains for the furnace/ac, water heater and water softener. more pics to come!
Like a rookie ass tin knocker. <---- Ex Tin-Knocker Looks good. You gonna run full metal or dump with flex?
it will be a cold day in hell when i put flex in my house i'm no rookie tin knocker, i knew i was going to cut myself, but i was lazy and paid for it.
Awesome work. Wish I knew how to do a portion of it. But it has motivated me to finally learn how to fix/upgrade some things around the house, even if it is easy stuff lol.
You saved an assload doing that work yourself. Good workmanship. I usually sign my work with my DNA also.
